I am one to experiment with my wash routine often. My prefolds are pretty rough, not as soft and quilty as I feel like they should be (but they are clean!). I have soft water. I use Tide powder mostly. Sometimes I use bleach, sometimes oxi clean, sometimes vinegar. Any ideas what caused the problem? And are they that way forever or ca I fix them?

I just had this problem a few months ago. We too have soft water and even though the prefolds were clean they were crunchy and stiff out of the dryer. It was detergent build up in our case. The diapers never smelled or anything but after stripping with dawn and then changing detergents they are soft and clean. The build up happened with tide, we switched to country save and that has been great for us. Good luck

As others said, do you have any more info to share? I have hard water but the only time my prefolds are crunchy or stiff is when I line dry so I just throw them in the dryer for 10 or 20 minutes after coming off the line to soften them back up. ETA: White Vinegar in the fabric softener tray makes them soft for me too.

Since you use the dryer, it sounds like detergent build up to me too. Do a couple of warm or hot washes without ANY detergent and see if they start to improve.

You don't need nearly as much detergent as you think to get them clean. We use soap nut powder instead now and everything is always fresh and clean. I used to get ammonia issues (on all cotton diapers) until we switched.